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A quick analysis by socalTECH of our tracking of venture capital deals in Southern California finds that there was around $879M in venture funding activity here in Q3. The information--gleaned from funding announcements, regulatory filings, and other sources--are not far off from socalTECH's totals from last quarter, which totaled up around $932M in investment activity. terms of venture firms, the most active The biggest are for venture activity in the quarter was Biopharmaceuticals, which was $299.13M of the quarterly total. San San Diego led investment activity in Q3, with

Frank recently talked with Clearstone’s Jim Armstrong about Jim’s views on how the economy is affecting both startups and the venture capital business, and it’s well worth a listen to get an idea of the issues facing both startups and venture capitalists in the new year.  (btw, btw, we’re now cross-posting relevant interviews from Frank’s podcast on socalTECH). ...Tags: Frank Peters, podcaster at the Frank Peters Show and chairman of the Tech Coast Angels, always has informative and in-depth interviews. Tags: Venture Capital Economy Entrepr

Marina Del Rey-based Six Degree Games is off to a rapid start with its new Action AllStars virtual world, the firm tells socalTECH, with more than 100,000 registered user in the first two weeks of public availability. The firm is venture backed by Clearstone Venture Partners and Prism Venture Partners, and raised $7M in a venture round around September. READ MORE>> ...Tags: The site--which counts both the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball Advanced Media as partners--offers an online site focused on interacting with friends, playing games, and chatting with other sports fans.

Clearstone Venture Partners (www.clearstone.com) Venture socalTECH readers . Thanks to all of the sponsors and advertisers, who allow us to keep you updated on Southern Southern California's high tech news and companies. They include:

Late Friday night, a Silicon Valley firm, Meru Networks , whose major backer is Santa Monica-based Clearstone Ventures filed for an IPO . Clearstone owns 21 percent of Meru, and is represented on that firm’s board by local VC William Quigley.  Full disclaimer: both Clearstone and Redpoint have or are current sponsors of socalTECH, though our coverage is always independent of our advertisers and sponsors.) ...Tags: There’s a lot of folks gambling on the IPO market this week, with a bunch of IPO news — both from local VCs as well as one local company.

socalTECH was a media sponsor of the conference). The panelists included James Cham of Bessemer Venture Partners; Beau Laskey of Steamboat Ventures; Greg Martin of Redpoint Ventures; Leo Spiegel of Mission Ventures; Ross Levinsohn of Velocity Interactive; Jim Armstrong of Clearstone Venture Partners; Mike Stuhley of the Tech Coast Angels; and Gus Tai of Trinity Ventures. READ MOR Southern California's top startups showed up in force Friday at the Westin South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, for the Technology Council of Southern California's annual VentureNet conference. (socalTECH

One of those taking a calmer view of the markets is William Quigley of Clearstone Venture Partners (a sponsor of socalTECH), who recently crafted this editorial on his perspective. Among the rampant fear the bouncing market has instilled in entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, there are more than a few people hyperventilating about what that means for the high tech market. On the other hand, there are some who are trying to take an objective view on what this really means, in the long term.